A person with a severed corpus callosum is briefly shown a picture of a bird and after this presentation she is able to tell the experimenter that she just saw a bird. Given this information, we can conclude that ____________.
A)the person is showing evidence of neural plasticity since she shouldn't be able to perform this task with a severed corpus callosum
B)the picture of the bird must have been shown in the person's left visual field
C)the picture of the bird must have been shown in the person's right visual field
D)for this person, language processing appears to be lateralized in the right hemisphere

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres of the brain, allowing them to communicate. If it is severed, information presented to one hemisphere cannot be directly shared with the other. Since the left hemisphere is typically responsible for language processing in most people, and visual information from the right visual field is processed by the left hemisphere, the ability to verbally identify the bird suggests that the picture was shown in the person's right visual field, allowing the left hemisphere to process the image and facilitate verbal identification.

A Person with a Severed Corpus Callosum Is Briefly Shown